Playboard

Learn Mahjong: Free Interactive American Mahjong Lessons

American mahjong is a four-player game of tiles, played to a hand card: you win by building one of the hands the card lists. These lessons are played at the same table you play matches at, with three other players whose tiles are set for each step. You sit at the bottom as East. Make the pass, the discard or the call, and the table tells you whether it was right. Start at the beginning if you have never played.

  • 6 lessons
  • 31 min
  • Free, no sign-up
Start the first lesson
Lessons for every game

Unit 1

Tiles, card and Charleston

The 152 tiles, the groups you build from them, and how to read a line on Playboard's hand card. Then the Charleston, the passes everyone makes before a single tile is drawn, and how to choose which hand to build.

  1. American Mahjong Tiles and How to Read the Hand Card

    Meet the 152 tiles of American mahjong, from Dots, Bams and Craks to dragons, flowers and jokers, then read a line on the hand card and play to it.7 min

  2. How to Do the Charleston in American Mahjong

    Pass three tiles right, across and left, vote on a second Charleston and make the courtesy pass, at the real table with three other players.4 min

  3. How to Choose Your Hand in American Mahjong

    Pick which hand-card line to build in American mahjong: compare the closest lines, keep two alive in the Charleston, drop a dead line and play safe.6 min

Unit 2

Playing a hand

Drawing and discarding, calling a discard for a pung, what jokers can and cannot do, and declaring Mahjong, from your own draw or off someone else's discard.

  1. How to Draw, Discard and Call Tiles in Mahjong

    Draw, discard and call a discard for a pung in American mahjong. Play turns at the real table and learn when a call helps and when it costs you.5 min

  2. How Jokers Work in American Mahjong

    On Playboard a joker fills any group of three or more, runs included, but never a pair or a flower. Call a pung with one, then swap a tile for one.4 min

  3. How to Declare Mahjong and Win a Hand

    Finish a hand on the card and declare Mahjong, on your own draw or off a discard. See who pays you, and why a self-drawn win pays three times over.5 min